OBJECTIVE: Attack southbound convoy that has just departed Hong Kong
RESULTS: B-25s search without success for convoy reported to be offshore between San Chau and Hong Kong. The pilots fly within five miles of Hong Kong, which they can see is not blacked out.
TIME OVER TARGET: ~6:00-7:00 p.m.
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: One B-25H and two B-25Ds of the 11th Bomb Squadron (341st Medium Bomb Group)
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:
- B-25 #430: Lt. Col. Joseph B. Wells; 2nd Lt. Earl C. Stone; Staff Sgt. William H. Johnson; Sgt. Jean W. Walburn
- B-25 #431: Captain George T. Grottle; 1st Lt. Harold Rochelle; 2nd Lt. Gerald M. O’Day; Staff Sgt. Charles M Cox; Staff Sgt. Golden U. Gallup; Sgt. Alvin A. Stainker
- B-25 #426: 1st Lt. Edward J. Pawlowski; 1st Lt. James W. Funk; 1st Lt. Ralph Kamhi; Tech Sgt. Robert C. Appleby; Staff Sgt. Louis L. Steiner; Staff Sgt. Thomas P. Kolenda
ORDNANCE EXPENDED: None
JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: None
AIRCRAFT LOSSES: None
SOURCES: Original mission reports and other documents in the Air Force Historical Research Agency archives at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.
Information compiled by Steven K. Bailey, author of Bold Venture: The American Bombing of Japanese-Occupied Hong Kong, 1942-1945 (Potomac Books/University of Nebraska Press, 2019).